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Malicious requests can fill up the log files resulting in a DoS on the server

High
jomaxro published GHSA-89h3-g746-xmwq Oct 16, 2023

Package

Discourse (Discourse)

Affected versions

stable < 3.1.1; beta/tests-passed < 3.2.0.beta2

Patched versions

stable >= 3.1.2; beta/tests-passed >= 3.2.0.beta2

Description

Impact

A malicious request can cause production log files to quickly fill up and thus result in the server running out of disk space.

Patches

The problem has been patched in the latest version of Discourse.

Workarounds

It is possible to temporarily work around this problem by reducing the client_max_body_size nginx directive. This can be done by adding the following lines to the container definition file:

run:
    - replace:
        global: true
        filename: /etc/nginx/conf.d/discourse.conf
        from: /client_max_body_size .*$/
        to: client_max_body_size 0.16m;

Note that the client_max_body_size will limit the size of uploads that can be uploaded directly to the server.

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVE ID

CVE-2023-44388

Weaknesses

No CWEs